All across Canada,
Canadian communities, mostly small, face great difficulties in trying to
establish regulations regarding the protection of navigable waters environments,
that is, waters which fall under federal regulatory jurisdiction - The Canadian
Shipping Act, in particular. Not only
are these communities paralysed in efforts to address the growing numbers of
motorized boats on waterways, but they also find themselves helpless to deal
with the proliferation of "Hummer" type boats, or wake boats, with
their 330HP to 550 HP and their destructive and high and powerful waves that
generate shoreline erosion, damage docks, make non-motorized boating unpleasant and
disturb shoreline enjoyment.
Unfortunately, The
Canadian Shipping Act is an inefficient tool to address the aforementioned
challenges because the Act, which dates back to the early years of Canada, was
not conceived to protect the environment.
More precisely, the prime purpose of the Act is to protect the rights of
navigators, and minimize the barriers to navigation.
But the worst part about
this Act is that it makes it exceptionally difficult for a local government to
obtain federal approval for a new regulatory proposal -- up to 5 years from the
time a request is made to the moment when a proposal may be approved -- and the
guidelines on the Act make it abundantly clear that the federal government
seeks non-regulatory solutions by way of voluntary codes of conduct.
The aforementioned latter
point is the source of eternal conflicts within communities in that a community
must reach nearly 100% voluntary adherence to a proposed code of conduct. Surveys and referendums are not regarded by
Transport Canada as a basis for a community to formulate a new regulatory
proposal.
Consequently, most
communities are not able to follow through to achieve federal regulatory
approval.
It is against this
legislative backdrop that the matter of the proliferation of wake boats on
Canadian waterways has contributed to community dialogues of the deaf over unresolvable
conflicts.
As alluded to in the
introduction to this article, wake boats are not at all like conventional motor
boats. The combination of 1) horsepower ranges similar to those offered for
Volvo tractor-trailer trucks and 2) ballasts ranging from 1500 to 2000 lbs, produce
high and powerful waves, even at modest speeds.
As if this is not enough, the turbidity caused by wake boats can go down
to a depth of 9 metres and suspend churned up sediments for up to 24 hours
after the wake boat has passed. In turn,
the cocktails of floating sediments stemming from shoreline erosion and turbidity
contribute to green and blue algae.
As for fuel
consumption, there aren't any third independent party ratings available. However, comments posted on the Net offer
figures ranging from 20 litres to 70 litres for one hour's use. So much for climate change!!!!!
To address the
increasing environmental challenges posed by powerful boats, the Canadian Coalition
on problematic boats, otherwise known as The Coalition, was officially created
on September 1st in a small Quebec community, St-Faustin-Lac-Carré, Québec.
In effect, the Coalition
wishes to see modifications of two pieces of legislation, the Canadian Fisheries
Act and the Canadian Shipping Act.
With regard to The
Fisheries Act, prior to the Harper administration's changes to this Act, the
Act was a very effective tool to protect marine life habitats. But in response to a request from the pipeline
industry, the Conservatives considerably weakened the protection of the marine
habitat.
Accordingly, The Coalition
objectives entail the modification of both the Canadian Shipping Act and the Canadian
Fisheries Act, plus the linking of the two Acts, in order to make it possible
to impose restrictions on certain types of boats based on impacts on the marine
environment and community decisions. Clear
national environmental criteria and local government authorities would be the
pillars of the new legislative framework and the concept of voluntary codes of
conduct would be abolished.
Of course, to be politically
realistic, The Coalition does not have any hopes with the current government. In
this regard, it proposes an interregional and interprovincial Coalition to formulate
innovative legislative recommendations for the next federal government, in
2015.
As for the rationale
for the interregional and interprovincial approach, it is a reflection of the
fact that a small community acting on its own cannot hope to have sufficient
influence to request a change to two Acts and the linking of the two. By contrast, a pan-Canadian Coalition would be
hard for any future government to ignore.
In brief, a
pan-Canadian Coalition with a two year time line is both politically and
logistically sound.
An online signature
document and a website to provide Coalition info and updates will be set up
shortly.
In the interim, I
invite citizens' associations, individuals, municipal councillors, regional
governments and others to write to me about their interest at
willdubitsky@yahoo.ca.
